Vitu Waitui

That’s always the excuse I use. Hard to resist.

After a little experimentation I liked the 4” bamboo pole the best for the handrail. Here is the handrail installed, burned and shellacked.

While I was up in the bar I remembered finding a Panamanian “Aged” rum at Costco that I had yet to open and sample. Win win!

Amazing job all around.

Thank you Arriano!

Well, I got busy and haven’t had time to post in a while. Part of our time away was spent on vacation and we brought back some great souvenirs.

Anyway…..After the stairway railing was complete and a serious delay in obtaining reasonably priced bamboo slats. (Thank you Mike from Frank’s Cane and Rush Supply) I back in-filled the birch walls with bamboo. A little editing of the wall hanging decoration to clean up the previous mess and I think….I’m more pleased with the stairwell.

Difficult to see but a hallmark of the stairwell is a PNG Ceremonial Board from Oceanic Arts. Also a Nautical Map of the Hawaiian Islands dated 1941. Pretty cool to have a map of Hawaii that’s over 80 years-old. The long skinny face carving has a sticker on the back that indicates it was at some point the property of Sony Pictures. I don’t know much about him though.

Because I thought it looked better I also cased the back of the bookcase speakeasy door with bamboo. After, I decided a plain bamboo door looked boring…..

So….Remembering something we saw at this year’s Tiki Oasis, I finally broke down and bought a pair of left and right Bosko’s. I hoped the Bosko’s would give the tiki bar faces of the bookcase doors some personality. My first and only Bosko.

This is amazing. I can't believe the scale of it all! Just wow!

Merry Christmas to the supportive folks here on TC! All of the weirdos here at Vitu Waitui wish each of you a Happy Holiday regardless of what you celebrate. May it be filled with Peace, Joy and Rum!

While I’m here I’ll introduce some of the staff that I have thus far been omitted from previous introductions. This is Bob (He hasn’t been well received by the other Tikis because of his background….haters). Bob is named after his late creator (RIP Robert from Sugarloaf Cordwood) Bob’s origin was a chainsaw carving which clearly doesn’t sit well with the other Tikis. Despite not being popular he wore his best tie for the Xmas party.

Between the Big Ku’s is the bar TV….I know, I haven’t done shit to camouflage the TV……above the TV are two festive holiday gents that are perpetually entangled in a struggle, Charlie and Seymour.

I haven’t posted in a while… Reflecting back on Tiki Bars that were extremely influential to me, the original Tonga Hut in Hollywood always stands out as one of my personal favorites. The freestanding fireplace was an endearing feature that I thought was unique to the Tonga Hut. So, At the northwest corner of Vitu Waitui I installed a similar Majestic MCM fireplace. I preferred “All black” compared to the orange at the Tonga Hut.

And unlike the Tonga Hut, I wanted my fireplace to actually work so I ran a natural gas line under the floor and voilà we have a fireplace.

I realize neither the Filipino Bakunawa mask nor the Balinese Barong mask are traditionally tiki but Vitu Waitui is a collection of items collected during my travels… My bar my rules.

[ Edited by ECTiki on 2024-07-18 19:01:04 ]

Awesome

Just awesome

Thank you Hang10

So much inspiration here! Thank you, your bar is stellar.

We recently remodeled the northeast corner of the lounge. Previously that corner was mostly occupied by a 7ft long "Bamboo" fish tank. There was a small two person table in front of the fish tank that was never used by guests. We decided to try and create a bit more of an intimate seating area than what was there before. We demo'ed the corner and started the rebuild.

We always try to sit in the back corner of Frankies when we are in Vegas. We love the little raised platform area. Our design, although smaller in scale was definitely inspired by the legendary Frankies.

While building the platform we were lucky enough to win one of the Trader Vic's Beverly Hills posts at a recent Auction.

We incorporated the pole into the design.

A local artist then made us a copy of the post and we were able to complete "The Hut" Hopefully now someone will actually sit in thus far unused corner. Our fingers are crossed the remodel improved the appeal of the spot.